Torvallis! nodded at all the hungry people eating supper, recovering from a busy weekend.

They walked to the middle of the cookhouse and waved their hands above their head.

"Alright, listen up! So we've had a bad weekend. And at some points, we didn't know where everyone was. We managed to keep almost everyone alive, but at points we didn't know where everyone was, and we didn't know who was missing.

I propose a buddy system. Each of us finds a buddy who keeps track of where the other is during emergencies like that, and when your buddy is missing, you alert someone else so they can find and stabilize them before it's too late. You go off somewhere odd, like the middle of the forest, you tell your buddy. Then we don't have to figure out who's there and who's missing, we just have to ask: 'Is everyone's buddy here?'.

It's not a perfect system, but our current confusion & panic is far from perfect, so a simpler, more tactical system will perform better.

What say you all? We need everyone to be buddied up for this to work, and we won't have the luxury of sorting that out when we need it"

"You . . . haven't thought that through. If 2 or more people are missing in a chain, then we only necessarily know about 1. Here, take Aurin, Borin, Cloraconth, Degren, Faun-person, Grey-Feared and say that they're watching each other in alphabetical fashion, with grey-feared watching Aurin.

If Borin, Cloraconth & Degren go missing, we'll end up only looking for Borin.

But moreover, if we split into two groups, say some of us set up a watch on the bunkhouse where medics have sufficient light, and others hide in the forest, large parts of the chain will always be disrupted. Where's Cloraconth? I don't know, I'm watching Borin & he's in the woods. Or more to the point: "Who are we missing? I know the person I'm watching is Borin and he's in the woods". "I don't know, I'm watching you" "There were five of us!"" Torvallis! stuffed the rats they had been using as puppets back into their sleeves.

"The chance that both of a pair will go down when we think we have everyone is very unlikely, and can be made more unlikely through the choice of pairs and tactical decisions made because of who you're paired with"

"Not necessarily. We want to know who's missing when we're in a disarray, and then being able to do that implies we're already able to reorganize from that point and make sure no one further goes missing. So half of us realize the other half is missing, and then pick a different temporary buddy until we all regroup.

I suggest the militia, the alchemists, the medics, and the mages all pair within themselves, odd ones out and people who fall into none of those categories then buddy up. And yes, there are overlapping people as well. If we have an odd person, they find a trio. Then if we're very organized, we can also count the number of militia men, the number of alchemists, the number of medics, and the number of mages to ensure we have the right numbers. That said, we are unlikely to know the exact numbers at any given point in time given people travelling away, coming back, new folks, etc. etc.

Pairs will likely be constantly broken, but as long as pairless people search for other pairless people, we'll be good. Rather than having to configure the chain every time.

And then also we still get information if not everyone is paired. We won't have coverage, but we'll have better information than current.

I would also suggest opposing champions. As we'll often need to run off in the middle of danger to check or protect the circles, and the air-earth, water-fire are usefully located near-far the inn. I would suggest earth-fire, air-water, but who wants to accidentally incidentally keep track of where Volk literally buries the bodies? Ugh!"

(OOC: Must. Not. Use. Group. Theory. Also should not consider buying plot force to get it as a life skill, and yet I am)

Hugo piped up: "Your idea is interesting, Torvallis. Although I'd propose we have a three-way buddy system of sorts, consisting of two combatants and a third who won't be on the front lines. That way, if the two fighters go down in a fight, the third can report their absence and request that another group goes out to find them."

Timmean speaks up from the corner. "Alright then Tovallis, that puts you with me." Glancing around to find Horns, he adds, "And if we add Horns to the mix, we have our three primary medics. Or should we each choose someone from another group to watch out for?"